Extended Hiatus: Over

So the last month to two months haven't been the greatest in terms of healthy living accomplishments.  But there have been a host of other accomplishments that I've achieved.

• The Big One: I GRADUATED!!  School is officially and perhaps forever over!  No more worrying about papers, no more worrying about blackboard, no more crappy professors.  IT. IS. OVER!
• The other, not quite so big, one is that I made it through Christmas.  It was touch and go there for awhile.  My family loves to pile on the stress, guilt and what-not to make something that is supposed to be wonderful absolutely awful.  But I made it through Christmas and, even if the weeks leading up to Christmas were pretty much horrifying, Christmas Eve and Christmas day were actually rather relaxing and drama free.  

New Year's also went very well though it wasn't exactly what I was planning/hoping/expecting.  But, que sera sera.  I was extremely happy to see the New Year though because it inevitably means that December 2011 is over.  January means more free time, more time to accomplish the other goals that I have, those that are more healthy living oriented.  January means less stress, less drama and in general a quieter life.  I had been craving January for a several weeks.  So far, it's lived up to it's expectations.  I am started to get my equilibrium back.  I'm starting to NOT feel exhausted all the time because I simply don't have time to sleep.  I've been walking my dog more and I've been cooking more.  It has been wonderful.

This brings me to the purpose of this post.  It's a little late for New Year's resolutions, but it's never too late for goals.  That said, I am starting out simple.  I would like to increase my cardio workouts.  I think that this will help me in the future for dealing with the aforementioned familial stress.  Maybe next Christmas won't make me so crazy.  To start, I am going to try to make it to the gym 1-2 times per week to use the elliptical, take my dog on at least one half hour walk every day and give one of the classes at the gym a try.  Probably Zumba, because I've been extremely curious about that.

I'm also going to go back to my meal planning on the calendar.  I would like to plan to prepare about three nutritious dinners every week.  I say "about" because the leftover situation may call for more or fewer nights cooking.  I'm also going to try new things for lunch because I'm really tired of the sandwiches that I've been bringing.  This week I made a pasta salad that is delicious.  I substituted whole wheat penne pasta for the egg noodles and didn't use all of the dressing to reduce the calories.

Last night I made a delicious batch of minestrone soup, courtesy of Clearly Delicious.  That, combined with the good lunch of the pasta salad means that I am currently feeling a lot better then I have been.  I just have to keep this up!

Anyway, toodles for now.

Graduation: It's kind of a big deal

Graduation is coming up and hopefully soon after I will finish all of my coursework.  With that, I will have a Masters in Library and Information Science, which is pretty cool.  After I finish my coursework and graduate, I will be able to come home from work and do whatever I want.  I won't have to worry about the paper that is due in a week or the discussion board stuff that I have to do that night or anything like that.  Because of this, there are several things that I am looking forward to:

1. Reading:  I have a list of books longer then I care to admit that I would like to read.  Now that I'll be able to read for something other than school, I'd like to read some of those books.
2. Social activities: I have many friends that I've lost touch with or just don't see as often as I'd like.  Since I'll have more free time, I'll be able to spend more time with these wonderful people who have put up with my absence during my Master's program.
3. Exercise: I really want to give this healthy living thing a shot.  The lack of schoolwork will eliminate excuses to not exercise, which I really need to do more consistently.  I would like to try geocaching and I would also like to explore the border to border trail that I have found here in Washtenaw county.  I'm also thinking about giving biking to work a try next year, especially since the company that I work for will reimburse me for some expenses related to biking depending on how much I actually bike to work.
4. Food: In addition to not exercising as consistently as I should, I also haven't been cooking as consistently as I should.  I can definitely tell the difference when I eat good, real food instead of food filled with additives and such.  There are a lot of recipes that I'd love to try my hand at and I'd really like to explore cooking in my crock pot more as well.
5. Hobbies: I really like knitting and I'm looking forward to finishing some of those projects that I started two or more years ago and starting new projects as well.  I also hope to learn new techniques along the way.

I trotted, sort of...

My friend Amy and I, along with 3000 other people, participated in the Lansing Turkeyman Trot on  Thanksgiving day.  Of course, I completed this event after only two hours of sleep since I was up most of Wednesday night cooking for Thanksgiving.  But, I still completed it!  Hopefully next year I won't be so sleep deprived.  Also, next year, Luna the Puppy-Dog will be joining us, possible dressed like a Turkey.  I'm sure that she'll enjoy that, or not.  But she doesn't have a choice in the matter.

But Amy and I walked the entire way, except for the last 50 feet or so at which point we jogged.  We completed the entire thing in 57 min and 4 seconds.  The goal for next year is to beat that time, along with the beagle dressed like a turkey and my friend Amy.  But, regardless of the time it took to complete, I will get Vitality points.  Especially since I already turned in the form to get those points.

In other news, I am now coming on the last couple weeks of school until GRADUATION!!  I'm so excited about graduation, but really NOT excited about the work I have to do before then.  That includes:

• Finish the ePortfolio
• Finish the Microsoft Encoder video
• Write the 15-20 page paper on some information behavior (I'm thinking the topic is going to be blogs)
• Maybe buy yet another textbook and take each chapter quiz as I read the chapter
• Continue to keep up with the discussion board

Hopefully that's all.  Hopefully...  The 15-20 page paper is actually due AFTER the graduation ceremony, but my goal is to complete it beforehand so that the ceremony actually is the end and there is some sense of closure there.

Anyway, wish me luck!

"Planning out meals for the week can help cut out processed foods for families"

Here's an interesting article that was published in the Lansing State Journal about clean eating and processed foods which, by the way, are indeed mutually exclusive.  I've known that processed foods are the reason that waistlines are expanding for awhile now, I just never acted on it until recently.

Yummy Bean Soup

Yesterday I made a pot of yummy bean soup for dinner.  Here's the part that was amazing.  It was INCREDIBLY easy and tasty.  Additionally, I had less then a ladle last night for dinner along with a little bit of bread, and I was comfortably full after that.  I also have a huge pot still, which means I probably don't have to cook again this week except for Thanksgiving stuff to take to my sister's.  If I think of it, pictures may be forthcoming.

Before cooking the soup, my kitchen was in dire need of being cleaned.  When I was almost finished cleaning, my garbage disposal decided it didn't like me a broke down.  :(

Otherwise, I think that I've mostly regained my emotional equilibrium which is good.

Also, the Turkey Trot is on Thanksgiving!  I'm pretty excited about walking the 5k with my good friend Amy, who I haven't really been able to chat with in several months.

Inadequacy

For some reason today, I am plagued by feelings of inadequacy.  I know that I have something to contribute to this world.  Well, I know in my head that I do.  I also know in my head that there are people that care about me.  But there are more important parts of me that aren't always completely convinced of these things.

The last 24 hours have been crazy stressful.  My computer stopped working when I was trying to work on a paper.  After some running around, I figured out it was the cord, but nonetheless it was extremely stressful.  This is especially true considering that I have a paper due in five hours that I can't seem to bring myself to work on.  Or even open the document up for that matter.

I was supposed to drive to Detroit today to pick up graduation stuff.  Luckily I was able to reschedule that.

My ePortfolio was essentially rejected.  They didn't like the color scheme or the layout.  Said the background color made it functionally illegible and that the organization of it was unorganized.  That's all in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.  I thought it was clearly organized.  Added to that, the background is a dark texture with light colored text.  It passed all accessibility standards according to the world wide web consortium, but apparently my school has different standards.  I have until November 28 the make the changes that they want made.

Maybe part of my problem is that my three closest friends live so far away.  Sometimes I'm here in Ypsi and I feel like I'm all alone.

Anyway, it's times like these that I tend to gorge on cookies, and yesterday really wasn't an exception.  I have been introducing more healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, etc, into my diet.  But then I start feeling like this, gorge on cookies, and I feel like everything that I've accomplished so far is down the drain and I'm starting from scratch.  That doesn't really help with the feeling inadequate thing.

Blood Screening

For the Vitality program at work, I had to get a blood screening where they test your blood for cholesterol, glucose, whether I'm a smoker, etc. They also weighed me and took my blood pressure.  I already knew that my BMI wouldn't be in range, but some of my cholesterol numbers were surprising.  My bad cholesterol number was within range, as well as my overall cholesterol number.  A couple other numbers were high and low, depending on which is bad.  In terms of blood pressure, it was on the high range of normal.  I'm cool with that because it's not incredibly high.  Overall, I think that my health is a little better then I was anticipating, and everything can get better if I stay on track with healthy habits.  I'm calling that good news.

In addition to these numbers, this also adds vitality points to my overall score.  I hope that my due points are going to be posted soon.  But this means one step closer to lower health care premiums next year!  Oh, and my vitality age (similar to WiiFit age, but probably more accurate) went down four years because of my blood screening results.  Woohoo!  Also, vitality will generate goals based on the information that they have about me.  They just created a goal for me to MAINTAIN my cholesterol, not lower it.  I find that something to be proud of. :)

In other news, I bought a new cookbook.  It has a lot of yummy looking recipes using fresh ingredients, some of which I've never heard of.  That last part is one of the reasons I bought the cookbook; I want to encourage myself to try new things, particularly healthy foods.  This should be an adventure.